RWBY Mothers Wish
by Glynda
Summary: This is an AU of RWBY in which the grimm have been pushed to near extinction but that doesn't mean that everyone is safe. Most of the main characters will show up later along with a few OCs of my own, the normal shipping nothing special about the pairs.
1. Chapter 1

Mother's Wish Chapter 1

"Ruby wake up" Ruby's mothers voice came through her door. "I'm wake mom." She pulled herself out of bed and changed into her normal clothing.

Ruby was ten years old right now and lived with her mother and father on a mountain above a small town, while Ruby had only gone there a few times with her mother to the small shop her aunt owned. Ruby always wanted to go with her mother, mainly to see her cousin, who was Ruby's best friend. Her name was Yang and she was two years older than Ruby with long blond hair and purple eyes.

"Ruby?" her mom called her again "Coming, mom" as she made her way down the stairs. This was how everyday started Ruby would eat breakfast with her parents then going about with the morning chores, helping her mom with the dishes and cleaning off the table. After the chores were done with Ruby went off the play in the snow and too wait of her mom to call her for lunch, and afternoon chores.

Ruby had been out for quite some time and her mother had yet to come get he, so she made her way home only to see the back of a large wolf like animal it had black rough fur that was raised on its back.

The beast was facing her father who had a sword drawn, he saw her out of the corner of his eye "Ruby get inside NOW!" Ruby was shocked her father never yelled unless it was important, she didn't know what was going on she ran past him and into the house where her mother was standing holding a small glass vile of red powder. "Mom, what's that thing outside?" Ruby ran up to her mother and hugged her "Don't worry about it daddy going to take care of it."

After a short time there heard a scream of pain as Ruby's father was cut across the chest by the wolf. "Daddy?" Ruby looked at the door and heard foot steps outside the door. "No, please not Ruby" he mother whispered as the beast ripped the door from its hinges, she through the vile, she was holding, at it. The vile broke over the beast in a red cloud as it ran at her mother and cut her chest open with its large claws. Ruby was in shock she couldn't even scream, that is when her mom who was still barely alive grabbed a log from the fire place while it was still burning a through it a the wolf, it was still covered in the powder from before and burst into flames. It started to screech in pain and ran out the doorway into the snow only to collapse in a mound of burnt flesh. Ruby ran over to her mom who was holding her bleeding chest. "Mommy? Tell me what I need to do to help mom." Ruby was crying uncontrollably, but her mom just smiled at her. "Ruby dear...I want you to go to town...and find you aunt." she coughs up some blood before she can speak again. "Find her and stay there...you can't stay here any longer." Ruby couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Mom, no I can't leave you here if I do that you'll...you'll die! Once again her mother just smiled at her. "Ruby, you can't change what is going to happen, so I want you to go and live with your aunt, I want you to be happy with your life and not...and not be held back by me and your father." She took her hand the wasn't covered in her own blood and rubbed Ruby's cheek. "You can have a life there, you can make friends have a dream to fallow and you can live happily, you might even find love there." Ruby could no longer hold back the sobs, before she was just crying silently but now she could barely get a word in between her sobs and heavy breathing. "No...I can't live happily...not without you and dad." Her mother kept smiling, but her voice became stern, after hearing what Ruby said. "Listen Ruby...it's too late for me and dad...we can't stay here anymore either." She started to cough again and then smiled one last time. "We love you, Ruby, but you need to find someone else to love." She closed her eyes and shortly after her breathing stopped. Ruby was silent aside from her crying she said nothing and made no other noise besides whimpering and heavy breathing between sobs.

The next day Ruby made a grave for her parents and buried them on a small cliff near her home. When she returned she made food and eat it in silence, when she was done she grabbed her mother's cloak from its spot next to the door and left, she knew where she had to go, she couldn't live on her own out there on the mountain.

Kanika Rose was the name of her aunt her husband had died shortly after Yang was born, but she kept the last name of her father, Xiao Long. It took some time for Ruby to make it to the town while she could see it from the cliff she buried her parents it was still a long walk and by the time she got there night had already fallen. Ruby made her way to Kanika's home while she didn't know the town that well she knew how to get to the shop, and her aunt's house was connected to the shop.

(Knock knock) "I'll get it mom." a tired voice came through the other end of the do, Ruby had never been around long enough to hear Yang when she was tired but she still knew her voice all too well. Yang opened the door. "Ruby? What are you doing here?" Ruby looked up at her with tears hanging on the corners of her eyes. "Ruby? Come inside." She grabbed Ruby's hand and brings her to the living room well her mother, Ruby's aunt, sat drinking tea. "Ruby, what are you doing here so late, without your mother?" Having her mother mentioned brought the tears to the surface and Ruby could no longer hold them back. "They... they… They're gone." was all she could say between her crying and ragged breathing. "What do you mean they're gone?" Kanika wasn't quite sure that she had heard Ruby right. Ruby stopped her crying for long enough to tell her what happened. "A big wolf thing came...and when Dad tried to fight it...it...it killed him." She went silent for a moment. "And then I came inside..." She couldn't hold her tears anymore but she kept talking through them. "And it cut mom's chest open." They stared at Ruby in disbelief. "Aunt Summer is gone!? But she was strong she used to be a huntress." Kanika grabbed her knees trying to hold herself up. "Then how did you get out, Ruby?" Once again Ruby held her tear just long enough to answer. "Mom set it on fire with some weird red powder and it ran outside and died." She fell silent after that, the only noise was her quite whimpering every so often. Yang took Ruby up to her room and put her down in bed she stayed there with her until she fell asleep. Kanika walks in to see Ruby sleeping and Yang laying next to her but not asleep yet. "I'm going to go up to her house to get her things and such, can you make sure she's safe until I get back?" Yang looked at Ruby, then back to her mother. "If you don't come back, I'll never forgive you." She said with a smile. Kanika knew Ruby wouldn't lie about something like this, but she still needed to get her clothing along with the rest of her stuff, she also wanted to pay her respects to her sister…

Yang woke up the next morning to the sound of her door opening, she was still half asleep but she could tell that her mom had just returned with Ruby's stuff. She put down two boxes and a couple bags before she turned to them and saw that yang was awake. "Good morning Yang." She smiled but her face was sad and her voice was hollow. " Is all of that Ruby's?" Yang was still tired but she sat up as quietly as she could o she didn't wake Ruby up. She had calmed down during the night but she still had a forlorn look even in her sleep. " this is all the stuff I could carry, not all of it is Ruby's." she looked very tired, it was clear that she hadn't gotten any sleep and that she had spent the whole night waking up the mountain and then the whole morning walking back down with a full load.

Over the next couple weeks Ruby hardly left the house and only talked when she needed to. Yang still shared her bed with Ruby and almost every night Ruby had nightmares, Yang would do what she could to calm her but it only helped so much. By this point Ruby had been told that since Kanika was her net closest relative that she was now considered her daughter and was also now Yang's sister but it wasn't until around a month after her parents died that she finally went back to the Ruby that Yang knew.

Ruby woke up early that morning and had gotten the first good night in the last month. She didn't have a nightmare about her parents instead she had a dream about her father, it was one of the times he was telling her about hunters and huntresses. And when she woke up she knew what she was going to do with her life when she got older.

"Good morning mom" Ruby said as she came down the stairs. Kanika was at a loss for words she hadn't heard Ruby say anything outside of the occasional yes or no in the last month. It had been the first time she was up before Yang but Kanika was to surprised that Ruby had called her mom. Before she could say anything Yang came barreling down the stair with a worried expression. " where is Ruby have you...seen...her" Yang was just as shocked as her mother to see that Ruby was up before her but not just that Ruby was smiling. "Good morning sis" Ruby waved at Yang and smiled "a good morning Ruby."

End


	2. Chapter 2

Mothers Wish Chapter 2

Yang can't believe what she is seeing, Ruby is sitting at the table looking back at her, smiling.

"Good morning sis" Ruby says before turning back to Kanika.

"Yeah, good morning Ruby" Yang replies as she sits down next to the girl.

For quite some time the three of them quietly consume their breakfast before a knock sounds on the door.

"I'll get it, mom" Yang stands up and walks to the door. When she opens it, a girl a bit shorter than Yang -but taller than Ruby- stands in the doorway in a dark purple snow suit with a black hood.

"Good (shivers)... Good morning Yang, ca can can I come in?" The girl's shivering stops once she steps inside the very warm house. She sits next to Yang with a cup of hot tea in her hands. She puts it down before speaking.

"Thanks, it's really cold" "It's not a problem Blake. So what brings you here this early in the morning?" The still very tired Kanika asks.

"Well I wanted to tell Yang that the sleds Weiss ordered finally came in.

" Yang jumps out of her chair. "Really? They're here already?...What about the extra one?" The last part of her question seems more worried then exited.

"Yes she did get one more." Blake looks at Ruby and smiles. "It's good to see that the gloom Yang told me about is gone." Ruby looks at Blake for a moment. She is about to say something when Yang interrupts.

"Well what are we waiting for lets go get ready Ruby." She grabs Ruby's arm and drags her up the stairs before the smaller girl even knows what is happening. Blake follows them shortly after. (In Ruby and Yang's room)

"Yang what's going on? What are we getting ready for?" Ruby asks as Yang throws clothes from their closet onto the floor. She turns around holding a snow suit similar to the one Blake is wearing.

"We are going to go sledding." Ruby turns her head, a bit confused at Yang's reply.

"Sledding?"

"Yeah, our friend Weiss ordered some sleds for the four of us." Blake walks into the room answering Ruby's question.

"Who is Weiss?" Ruby asks.

"She is our best friend, even though she seems really mean sometimes like that time I got my head stuck in the snow and she wouldn't help me" Yang pouts.

"That was your own fault, Yang." Blake says, taking her hood down and revealing two cat ears on her head. Ruby stares at Blake for a moment with a look of shock on her face then runs up to the girl and pleads,

"Can I touch them?" she clasps her hand in front of her face and closes her eyes.

"I've never had someone ask me that before...I guess you can." Blake tells her. Ruby wastes no time as she starts to pet Blakes ears.

"Hey, Ruby, I'm sure you can pet her ears more later. We need to get ready, Weiss is waiting, right Blake?" Yang who is now fully dressed in her snow suit ways while she holds another suit one just like hers only in red and black.

"Yes she is waiting at our normal stop so we should hurry." Ruby dashes over to Yang and grabs her suit.

"I'll be out in just a minute, just wait down stairs."

The three of them make their way to where Weiss is waiting for them. Weiss wears a very light jacket for this time of year and a pair of jeans, her hair is tied back in an off-center ponytail. "Hey Weiss!" Yang waves as they reach the top of a rather large hill with a circle of trees around it.

"What took you so long didn't Blake go and get you?" She turns her head slightly annoyed.

"Yeah but she came right in the middle of breakfast." Yang closes her eyes and smiles.

"Well where is she, then?"

"She had to take care of something at home, she said she would be back in a few minutes" Yang replies. Weiss looks around to see if there is anyone else around.

"So how is Ruby, is she the same as before?" Her voice concerned. Yang smiles, trying to hold in laughter.

"She was doing better this morning she...she called me sis at breakfast." Weiss's face changes and she seems to be more relaxed. "So do you think she will be able come outside soon?" Her face turns more serious, "or does she need more time?"

Yang just smiles at her. "Well why don't you see for yourself" Blake and Ruby come out from behind a tree and start walking up to Weiss.

"Hey Weiss." They smile, "and yes this was Yang's plan." Yang who is on the verge of making a joke is silenced when Weiss shoves her head down into the snow. Ruby walks up to Weiss with her head down,

"H... Hello" Ruby lifts her head to look at Weiss. Weiss stares at Ruby questioningly, everything that she had heard from Yang about Ruby made her think she would look sadder rather then nervous.

"Hello Ruby, I'm Weiss" By this time Yang has pulled her head out from the snow and moves to stand next to Blake, who is watching the two girls.

Ruby turns away slightly"I'm sorry if I worri..." she is interrupted by a hand covering her mouth.

"You don't need to talk about, now." she addresses the dark-haired girl then shifts her focus to the others.

"Yang, Blake get over here so we can get to sledding."

With that, Weiss hands each of them a sled. Yang is the first one to go running, jumping onto it just before it gets away from her. Weiss goes next then Blake, Ruby hesitates at first but jumps on when she sees the other girls waving for her to come down, their faces showing just how much fun they are having. Ruby decides she wants to feel that way and takes the plunge down the hill.

"That was awesome!" Yang jumps up and pumps her fist in the air.

"Yeah let's go again!" Ruby is now just as exited as Yang, much to the three girls' relief, and they agree that Ruby seems to be having a good time.

Hours pass and finally the four of them head back to Yang and Ruby's house.

"I think we stayed out to long, my ears are numb." Blake places her hands on top of her head, holding her cat ears to try to keep them warm.

"Well you can blame Yang for that, she is the one who wanted to keep going for so long." Weiss, still untouched by the cold, says as she walks next to Ruby. Ruby sports the biggest smile and says.

"Thanks for getting the sleds Weiss, it was really fun." She grabs Weiss's arm and gives her a hug.

"Hey get off...Ruby come on." Yang turns around to see what is going on, only to trip over a large black thing in the road.

"Hey..this wasn't here before." Yang stands up, taking a look at what she had fallen onto; it is a large cloth with a white curled up snake design on it.

"Wait isn't this..." A hand comes from under the cloth and grabs Yang's leg

"Ahhhhhh!" she screams and jumps back.

"Yang could you help me... it's really cold." A tired voice comes from under the cloth.

"Albus? What are you doing out here, you know it's to cold for you." Weiss scolds him as she walks forward with Ruby still holding onto her arm.

"Just help me inside please"

The six of them go inside and sit at the table. Kanika makes tea for them. "So Albus, what where you doing out in the cold like that?"

Albus who looks to be around 28 moves his long white hair off of his still shivering shoulders and looks at Kanika with cloudy green eyes.

"Trying to get here."he says, removing his thick black cloak and heavy coat under the coat is a gray long sleeved shirt. He sits at the table now in his black cargo pants and steel toed boots, looking very pale. Kanika crossed her arms.

"Why would you need to get here? If you need something you can always call."

Albus looks down at his cup, frowning."My heater broke and I'm out of fire wood, they said it would be fixed in a couple days."

Ruby who is sitting next to him pokes his arm. "Why can't you be out in the cold?"

"So you're Ruby, right? I never got to meet you but I was good friends with your." He stops as Yang hits him in the ribs.

"Sorry; to answer your question," He takes the last of his tea in one gulp.

"I'm a faunus like Blake, just not the same kind." Ruby looks confused, Blake is the only faunus she has ever met.

She turns her head sideways,"what kind are you?"

"I am a snake faunus, so my body is the temperature of where ever I am."

"Which is why you should have just called instead of trying to walk here on your own. You can stay here until your heater is fixed."

"Thanks Kanika, I owe you one."

She turns to him. "Don't you always?" She winks and smiles.

Shortly after Blake leaves, Kanika walks up to Ruby. "Hey Ruby I wanted to ask you something."

Ruby looks very tired sitting next to Yang and Weiss, who both are asleep on the couch. "What is it?"

Kanika looks slightly worried and glances away. "Are you sure you are ok with... with everything?"

Ruby nods slowly. "I know you've been having a hard time, are you sure?"

Ruby looks back at her with a determined look in her eye. "I am and know what I want to do when I get older, I want to be a huntress like you and mom were."

Kanika is shocked but happy that not only had Ruby changed from sad and dark to happy and cheerful, but that she already has a goal. "That.."

"That sounds like a great idea" Albus walks into the living room, having overhead Ruby and Kanika.

"But don't you remember most of the schools shut down a couple years ago."

He stops, thinking. "I would be willing to teach her."

"Really? You would" Ruby jumps out of her seat , squealing and hugging him. The commotion wakes Weiss.

"What is going on?"

Ruby runs back over to Weiss and grabs her hand. " Albus said he would train me to become a huntress."

Weiss looks at him with a very stern look. "Me too."

Albus had not been expecting this. He backs up a bit as Weiss continues. "I want to be one too so... please train me too."

Albus walks into the kitchen backwards, "Sure, but you both need to get a bit older before we can start."

Kanika can't believe what has just happened, Albus is like a little brother to her. They are only three years apart and now he is going to teach her daughter how to be a huntress.

"I'm going to sleep girls. Weiss you can stay over if you father doesn't mind."

Weiss's face turns dark for a moment. "He doesn't."

Kanika nods as she heads to her room, "Well, good night then."

Ruby and Weiss are left in the living room. "Hey Weiss you ok ...Weiss." Ruby says, noticing that Weiss seems sad.

Weiss keeps her back to Ruby to hide her tears but she can't help smiling at the concern and friendship in Ruby's voice. "Yeah, let's sleep now. Good night,Ruby."

END

I apologies for any problems I am trying to work out the format and it took several tries to get this right. Please understand and I hope it wont be this long for the next chapter to come out. Thanks for reading.


	3. Chapter 3

Note: I am writing Weiss to be a bit nicer than in the show, obviously there will be a few changes that won't quite make sense but I hope you can

understand. Now the chapters will becoming out faster since I am at a point in my book where I feel comfortable stopping to work on this, Also I made a

mistake last chapter with the age of Albus, after doing to math he is 31 putting Kanika at 33. so I hope you enjoy reading this and please leave a review-

anything helps- suggestions, or just a kind word can help a lot. That said, a friend of mine RWBYFan4life has helped me out with this, you should go check out

his work - The truth of team RWBY and the follow up, Reunited are very good reads. Now please, enjoy this chapter.

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><p>Mother's wish chapter 3<p>

Old and new friends

Ruby wakes up early the next morning but finds that she isn't on the couch. She is lying in her bed next to Weiss and Yang. Weiss has her arms wrapped

around Ruby's left arm while Yang is sprawled over both of them. She moves as slowly as she can, Yang is a heavy sleeper but she remembers that Weiss had

been woken up earlier when Ruby got exited.

Ruby makes her way downstairs to see Albus sleeping on the couch and Kanika sitting at the

table across from him.

"Good morning Ruby, up early again?"She puts her cup down on the table softly.

Ruby simply rubs her eyes and sits next to Kanika.

Kanika smiles and looks over at Albus. " He took you three upstairs last night you know." She grabs her cup and takes a drink.

Ruby looks at her with a confused look. "Why did you retire from being a huntress?"

Kanika smiles. "Well, shortly after Albus and I graduated, the grimm were almost killed off and we were having a hard time finding work, plus right afterward I

got pregnant with Yang."

"All three of use grew up here -me, your mother and Albus, I am one year younger than her and Albus is two years younger then me, but because of when he

was born he was only one year behind me in school. He even managed to get into combat school a year early," she sighs. "It was fun while it lasted."

"What about the rest of you and Albus' team?"

She laughs slightly. "We weren't on the same team really, but the teams we had were very close, we went on all of our missions together," She drinks the

last of her coffee. "His team was CBAT. The headmaster had a strange acronym for the color cobalt but the leaders name was Cole...I never got his last name,

anyway Albus Serpens, Bayard Arashi and Takoizu Miu."

Ruby looks even more confused now "Umm..."

"Sorry, the memories just caught up to me, long story short, Albus is the only one out of our two teams who hasn't retired yet... well... _he_ might still be

working but I don't really care."

"Who?" she rubs her eyes.

"Yangs birth father. He was on my team and we were together for some time, until I got pregnant. Then he vanished from Remnant without a trace."

Ruby looks down with a sad look. "I'm sorry for asking."

"He was a prick anyway." Albus sits up and takes the blanket off.

"Damn it Albus," she throws a pillow at him. "how long have you been up?"

"Long enough, I told you he was an ass, didn't I?" He smirks at her and stands up.

"Yeah yeah, don't rub it in." She stands up. "Want some coffee?" They both walk into the kitchen.

By this time Weiss had woken up and was walking down the stairs. "Good... (yawns)... morning."

" Morning, Weiss" Ruby now fully awake gives Weiss a hug.

"Hey it's too early, why are you so happy anyway?" She breaks free from Ruby and looks her in the eye.

"Don't you remember what Albus said last night? She darts around Weiss happily.

Weiss tries to think about last night but can only remember sitting on the couch with Ruby and Yang, nothing else. "No, no I don't, what happened?" She walks over to the couch.

Ruby bounces over to her. "Albus said that when we got older he would train the two of us to be huntresses." She smiles and sits back down next to Weiss.

"How could you not remember? I jumped off the couch and it woke you up, and then you told Albus that you wanted to be a huntress too."

Weiss thinks she remembers waking up but is cut off when Albus enters the room. " So Ruby, Weiss are you sure that you want me to train you?"

Ruby looks at him with determined eyes, Weiss hesitates. "Y...yes I do."

He sits down across from them. "Well we can start in a couple years once you two are older, until then enjoy your childhood it will be over all too quickly."

Ruby jumps up. "Let's go get Yang and go sledding again." She grabs Weiss's hand.

"Ruby... it's to early lets wait." She stops Ruby and looks at her. "Let's at least wait for Yang to wake up and eat breakfast."

The rest of the day goes on normally. The four of them go out to sled but end up just laying in the snow not doing anything but talking, Blake leaves for

home early and Yang remembers she promised to help Kanika with the store, leaving Ruby Weiss on the hill.

"Hey Ruby, what do you think being a huntress will be like?..." she looks over to Ruby who is asleep on the tree. "RUBY wake up you'll catch a cold come

on." she pulls Ruby up off the ground. "Dunce, be more careful."

They head back to Ruby's home shortly after. From that day on, Ruby and Weiss are very close friends. Weiss begins to spend more and more time with

Ruby and Yang, spending the night much more often and coming over almost every day she hadn't stayed the night. Before they know it, three years pass and

the two remain best friends. Even now the three and sometimes four of them always sleep on the same bed whenever they are all in the same house.

Now Ruby and Weiss stand next to each other in front of Albus, "Well girls it's been three years since you told me that you wanted to become huntresses

and now it is time to start your training."

They stand in a large training room full of weapons -swords, shields, hammers, etc. Albus has his normal clothing on, an ivory chest plate, gray shirt and

black cargo pants. On his right shoulder is an ivory paldren that ends just above his elbow. On his left shoulder is a paldren that is short but extends off his

shoulder to cover his neck. In his right hand he holds a three bladed, lance shaped weapon, and a large shield shaped like a snake skull on his back.

"First we need to find out what weapon works for you, so go on and see what you like." At that moment, Kanika walks into the room. She has not been the

inside of this place before. "Albus, how did... you what? Did you take the old school's whole supply of... everything?"

"Well not all of it." He smirks. "Just what I needed... so most of it." He shurgs, smiling then walks forward a bit. He turns around smiling still. "So, did you

ever think I would be a teacher?"

"Not on my life, but better you then Bayard he wouldn't get anything done." She smiles back at him then turns around. "Well tell me if you need anything, I

need to open up shop soon."

"Got it, see you later!" He turns to Ruby and Weiss who have both picked up weapons much too big for them.

"Once you find something you like we can make one that is the right size for you." He starts walking toward them. "This is going to be a fun few years." He

takes the large scythe from Ruby and puts it down.

"Let's get you a smaller one until you make your own." He smiles at them. "Come on, I have some more over here." They continue looking at weapons

until they have chosen, Ruby picks up the over sized scythe again, as she feels an intense draw toward it, and Weiss chooses a rapier.

"Ruby I think that suits you well." Weiss walked over to Ruby.

Ruby hugs her. "We can do this, Weiss! I know we can make a great team!"

"Well, now that you have chosen your weapon class, it's time to start the basics." Albus draws his weapon and they begin. This is the beginning of the first

half of their training, which will take them two years to complete.

End.

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><p>Note Sorry if the ending seemed rushed I just didn't know how to end it without making this chapter go into what I wanted to use in chapter four.<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

Authors note: I'm sorry for the long wait but here is the new chapter it is over 4000 words over twice any of the other chapters and I hope you enjoy. Please remember to review and if you have any questions you can send my a PM.

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><p>Mothers Wish<p>

Chapter 4

Ruby and Weiss laid on the couch after their first day of training, it wasn't all that exhausting, but they had spent a lot of energy simply running around in excitement. Albus was sitting across from them and drinking his tea. "Well, you two get some sleep, in the morning we can start getting you ready to start real training." He waited a moment before noticing that they had fallen asleep

Albus sighs "I think you two all a bit too old for me to move you to your beds now" He grabs some extra blankets and puts them over Ruby and Weiss. "Night you two." He walks out of the room with a smile.

Ruby wakes up a few hours later to find that she is still on the couch and that Weiss is leaning her head on her shoulder while she sleeps. "...psssssst Weiss...I guess she is really tired." She looks down at Weiss' face and puts her hand on her head. "I won't let it happen again, I will protect you and everyone else." With that she closes her eyes and goes back to sleep.

A couple month past before Ruby and Weiss had to take a long break from training. It was winter again which means that Albus has to conserve as much energy as possible, so they can go on practicing what they know but they can't get anything new from Albus for quite a while. "While I can't train you until winter is over you two need to read these and practice" He hands them each a stack of three books containing techniques for scythe and rapier users. " also don't just read the ones relating to you, read your partners side to, in order to fight well together you need to understand each other's way of fighting." with that he left to go back to his home and wait out winter.

Weiss walks down the stairs just as Kanika finishes making breakfast. Ruby and Yang are sitting at the table still in their sleep wear. "Good morning." She yawns and sits next to Ruby, who smiles and gives her a small hug.

"Goooood morning, Weiss, you looked like you were having a nice dream so I let you sleep in." she lets go of her and returns to her food.

It was a few weeks into winter and by this point Weiss had officially moved into Ruby and Yang's home. Kanika was skeptical at first, but when one of Weiss's maids explained to her the situation she quickly agreed. Weiss' father had once been a caring man, but ever since his wife died he changed Kanika just didn't know how much. He didn't ever look at Weiss and the last words he ever spoke to her were "Dear, you are the spitting image of your mother… And I can't stand to be reminded of her". The day Weiss left with her things he didn't even look at her. As of now Ruby and Weiss shared a room, Ruby had moved out of Yang's room shortly after she returned to her normal self, but was overjoyed when she heard Weiss would be staying with them and offered to share her room.

"Good morning, Ruby" After Ruby lets her go, she looked at the food that has been placed in front of her, two eggs, toast and three pieces of bacon, A normal breakfast for a now normal girl.

"Yonk!" Yang grabbed a piece of bacon from Weiss's plate and adding it to her own.

"Come on, Yang, you already have an extra piece!" Kanika sat down at the head of the table. Weiss, who was still too tired to notice what had just happened, sat there with a confused look.

"I know, I know." She quickly dropped the piece she took and one of her own onto Weiss's plate. Smiling at her, before tearing into her own food.

"So, Weiss, what should we do today? We could ride bikes or go looking around the woods and-" Weiss was still too tired to really get what Ruby was saying, except that wasn't what they needed to be doing. Reading over the books that Albus had assigned them to read and try to practice new moves.

"Ruby?" Weiss said softly.

"Yes, Weiss?" Ruby turned to her happily.

"It's been three weeks since winter started and do you know what we have yet to even look at" Her voice more serious now, but trying not to be too harsh.

Ruby sank down into her chair. "...Yeah, I guess we should start reading those." By this time, she knew when Weiss was right about something and she definitely was right about this. "So, will we start our new stuff today then too?" Ruby changed back to her happy self, no doubt at the thought of training more with Weiss and her newly made Crescent Rose.

"Good, and after that we can practice that move you like so much!" Weiss smiled as she finished her plate and got up to drop it in the sink.

Ruby jumped out of her chair. "Alright let's do this" she ran to the back door, outside was the shed that held there weapons.

"Wait!" Weiss's voice was calm but stern. "Just what do you think you are doing? I said after we do some of the reading." She was standing at the base of the stairs ready to go to their room.

Ruby slowly walked over to Weiss, with her head down and followed her to their room where the books that she dreaded to read were waiting.

In their room the Weiss sat at a small table near the corner while Ruby sat on the floor. "Weiss..." Ruby flipped onto her back and dropped the book over her face. "Can we go now? We have been reading for almost three hours...please."

"Ruby...we need to finish these before winter ends. We don't want to get back to Albus in the spring and not have read them." Her eyes never left the book as if she wanted to finish it, before she let anything else get her attention.

Ruby sat up and slowly walked over to Weiss, as she got closer she held her hands up and when he got behind Weiss she slipped her hands around Weiss's face to cover her eyes. "Guess who" Ruby gave a small laugh as she tried to change her voice to sound more like Yang's.

Weiss give a sigh before answering. "Your Yang impression still needs work, Ruby." Ruby removed her hands a Weiss turned to her. "Now let's get back to reading so we can go practice."

Ruby sat down on the floor legs crossed. "Weiss, we have all winter. It's not like we need to read them all in the first month. We have plenty of time" She stopped for a moment to give Weiss her signature puppy dog eyes. "Pleaaasssse, can we go practice now?"

Weiss smiled as she placed her bookmark in and closed the book. "Dunce, but your right I shouldn't rush the studying, let's get our gear on." Ruby vanished with a cloud of rose peddles and the closet door opened and shut instantly. "She is much too hyper... I need to find out where she keep those cookies she hides."

Yang POV

"Knock, Knock, hey are you guys done? All you're doing is cleaning your weapons right?" I had followed them wanting to watch what they could do as a team. "It's been like ten minutes...sis come on" The door opened hitting me and sending me onto the ground. "Hey, what was tha-… for?" the only thing I could see was a large blade. This was not the scythe that she had last time I had watched Ruby use in the past, it was larger and the blade seemed to be on a hinge rather than fixed or welded into place. "Ruby, what is that?"

She walked over to me holding the scythe in one hand, it she taller than her by at least a foot. "This is Crescent Rose. The other scythe wasn't my final design."

"You know this is your fault right, Yang?" Weiss now stood next to Ruby with her rapier it seems to have changed as well now with a six shot revolver chamber for different types of dust. "After we watched all of those action movies she got the idea to put a scythe blade at the end of a sniper rifle and after a lot of work it was finished, but I can't complain it works well."

Ruby jumped up it the air and raised her fist. She then grabs Weiss's hand and runs over to a small clearing with several large stones. I watched them from a good distance away, while it would look cooler if I was closer I had seen what her old scythe did to a tree once and this new one was supposed to be better, I would rather not be missing any limbs or worse.

Ruby and Weiss stood back to back before it started, without any warning Ruby started swinging her massive scythe, like it was nothing. I couldn't believe how much stronger she has gotten. At the same time Weiss jumped above and to the right of Ruby landing on a tree, three seconds later something formed under her feet and launched her foreword right as Ruby fired a round from her scythe sending her far to the left of where just was and where Weiss dug her sword into the ground. God I hope she is using blank rounds if not she's gonna put a hole in the wall. After a few minutes filled with stunts, flip and with Weiss moving around and under Ruby's scythe perfectly, Weiss jumped into the air again and Ruby stopped all movement with her scythe at an angle to the ground. Moments later Weiss came back down and landed on Crescent Rose, Ruby began to move again as another symbol formed under Weiss's feet throwing her off Crescent rose as ruby swung to give her some more speed. It was amazing that the two of them had gotten this close in just under three years. at first I thought that it was a bad idea to let them share a room they would get into small fights all the time but after a bit I noticed that it didn't affect their friendship at all and it had clearly done them some good in practice to. I looked back to Weiss's blade piercing a large rock and a split second later the rock shattered.

I run over to them I was in shock watching them was like watching dancers perform. "That was awesome, Ruby!" I gave her a huge hug.

"Yang...let go...I can't breathe." Ruby managed to say under the force of my hug.

"Ooh sorry" I loosened up a bit, It was hard to not bear hug her after seeing just how much she has changed from the girl she was when she showed up at the door three years ago. After a minute I put her down. I should have asked Blake to come watch them with me, but that can be done next time.

"I can't believe it worked, Weiss!" Ruby jumped and tackled Weiss to the ground in a hug. "It worked, it worked!" She said between her laughter.

"Hey sorry to interrupt you two but mom said that lunch should be ready soon, so how about we go eat then you two can get back to this." I turned around as they got up and walked back to the door and then inside. When I opened the door I was hit with the smell of beef, I ran to the kitchen to see mom putting three plates on the table all with a somewhat large burgers on them, Ruby was right behind me, she must of smelled the food.

"Good I was just about to call you three in, I hope you enjoy" Mom sat at the head off the table as always, I sat to her left Ruby to her right and Weiss sat next to Ruby.

"Let's eat then!" Before I grabbed my food and began to stuff my face.

Ruby POV

"Well, Ruby, I think that is enough practice to today, I'm going to take a shower first tonight ok." Weiss and I had been training for hours now and we really needed a shower unfortunately it was Weiss's turn to take her shower first.

"Ok, I'll wait in our room for you to finish." I follow Weiss out of the shed, through the back door and up the stairs, at the top we split off I needed to go to our room and wait for a few minutes. As Weiss made her way into the shower room, I waited for five minutes, before I left our room.

"Please, don't hear me." If she heard me now, I was dead. That would be it Ruby Rose strangled with a towel in the shower, but if I don't get caught it will be worth it, Weiss has a habit of singing when she is alone and I would never miss a chance to hear her sing even if I must sneak into the shower room to hear it. There was more than one reason why I wanted to listen. I had something I had to ask Weiss. Something very important. But her singing was also calming.

I open the door to the changing room there would be a pile of clothing here but it looks like Weiss put them all down the shot to the basement. The only thing between the shower room and the changing room was a thin glass door it was fogged over but a shadow could still be seen through it. The water is on so she should start soon, I sit down and lay my head on the glass door right as it starts. I can't understand what she is saying over the sound of running water and the fan that kept the room from getting to steamy, but it was still beautiful. I close my eyes to listen.

The door slid open and before I can react, my head hits the floor of the shower room. "RUBY!? What are you doing?!" I never heard the shower turn off this was bad this was going to be my last day alive.

"I'm sorry." Is all I could get out before I dashed out of the room across the hall and back into ours. I must have been five minutes by now, why hasn't she come in here to kill me?

Like she could hear my thoughts Weiss opened the door in her pajamas. "...Weiss, I'm sor-"

"There will be none of that, Ruby." She didn't seem angry, a bit annoyed but not angry. "Ruby... If you want to hear me sing you could always ask me you know."

"Really? You won't get mad?" I can't believe it today was not my last day thank the gods.

"Now why would I be angry about that? What I should be angry about I you sneaking into the changing room while I shower to listen. How long have you been doing that anyway? She wanted towards me with a look that seemed to say 'really?'

My mind was hardly able to keep up with my words that seemed to overflow like tub if left running. "I'm really sorry but I thought that you might be mad if I asked you so I took a chance at listening to you whenever you did sing and it was great ever time and worth the chance of getting killed over and I ..." I stop talking when I feel Weiss put her finger over my mouth.

"Ruby, I'm not mad, and I'm happy that you enjoy my singing, now how long?" She removed her finger and crossed her arms after taking a step back.

"..Si-... Since you moved in." I took my blankets and throw them over my expecting to get rage form Weiss. But after a few seconds she sat down on my bed and gently removed the blankets,

"Ruby, you seem off you're not acting normal is there something on your mind?" I looked up at her and the look on her face is very worried.

I sit up ready to ask the question that has been in my head since winter started. "Weiss… Do you remember when we met?"

"Well, of course!" She looked a bit confused.

"Well, you know what happened a month before that right? How my parents?" Her finger returns to my mouth.

"I know what happened Ruby don't force yourself to remember." What was going on? Normally Weiss was very quick to get angry but she didn't look anything but concerned.

"Well next month in the anniversary of the death and... _and I want you to come with me when I go visit their graves._" The last part came out faster than I had thought.

" Ruby... Are you sure you want" I cut her off

"YES, Weiss...your my best friend, the only friend I ever had before you was Yang and now I have you Blake, Albus, Jaune and the others, but you're the closest to me I tell you everything. Before I could start rambling again Weiss stops me.

"Ruby… Thank you." Weiss smiled at me a full smile not her normal good job smile. "I didn't have friends until I ran away from home four years ago… it was right after I stopped existing to my father. I ran all the way across town until I tripped and landed face first in the mud Yang had been sitting outside and came to help, she let be barrow her clothes while mine were washing, let me use there shower. After all that I went back home and the next day Yang had climbed to my window on the second floor."

"That sounds like her." I couldn't help but let out.

"Anyway the point is we are all friends and we can depend on each other." She gives another rare smile. "So don't keep stuff bottled up trust me it will only make it worse" I smiled back but there was one more thing

"There is something else...I… I haven't gone to see them since it happened." I could never quite come to terms with their death. I just couldn't bring myself to go up there.

"WHAT?! Ruby, how... sorry it's just not what I expected." It was an expected reaction to something like that.

"I… I just couldn't do it the first year and last year I locked myself in here and wouldn't come out. But- but this time I will do it I will see them… I will… I … I" I let my head drop down trying to hide the tears that I knew were coming,

"You dunce!" I tried to look up but Weiss was doing something she had only done once before. She was hugging me, she only other time that she hugged me was after she had woken me up from a nightmare. Unless I count one of the nights after our training started she hugged me when she was half asleep.

"Weiss, what are you?" She pulled me tighter.

"Calm down, Ruby, I'm sure they would understand. Now go take your shower and then we can get some dinner.

She lets me go and although I would rather stay I am drenched in sweat still. "Thanks, Weiss, and I meant what I said, you are my best friend.

"Shower now, Ruby." I could tell she was trying to be strict but I still could hear a snicker when I left. This time I wouldn't stay locked away.

Weiss POV

"She can be quite stupid sometimes, but she is a great friend, my best friend" Father had always tried to keep me in the house until he just stopped seeing me.

Over the next few weeks I noticed that Ruby got more and more sullen as the anniversary drew near, she would get lost in thought she was eating less and now that day was tomorrow.

Ruby for once was still asleep hidden under her blankets. I walk over to wake her. She is twisting and turning in her sleep and is mumbling something I can't quite hear. "Mom… No… Don't go please stay here with me." Ruby was having one of her nightmares again they didn't happen often but she needed to be comforted when they did.

"Ruby… Ruby, it's ok, I'm here" I sat down on her bed and removed the covers. She curled up into a ball when I took them.

"..Someone... Help me." She' crying still sleeping I can't stand this anymore.

"Ruby, please wake up you're not alone now" I have to wake her up. I grab her shoulders and shake her.

Ruby's eye shoot open and she sits up quickly making her forehead hit mine. "Awww." I rub my head. "Ruby, be more careful" I hardly had time to say it before Ruby hugged me tightly still crying.

"Weiss?... I … Thank you...for waking me up." Her crying had slowed down but I can till feel the tears coming slowly.

I only do this when she needs it, I'm not one for physical contact but sometimes she needs a hug and I feel like I will be giving her more than one today. "It's fine, Ruby, don't cry everything is fine." I hugged her back. "Now come on we should start getting ready. Right?" I let go as did Ruby.

"...Yeah...Weiss, let's... let's get ready for today." She slid her legs off the bed and walks over the closet grabs her clothes and goes to the bathroom the change.

There isn't much I can do in ways of comforting her but I will do what I can.

It was just past noon and Kanika is driving us up to Ruby's childhood home why they decided to live all the way up here is beyond be, As we near the top of the hill I feel Ruby grab my hand. Her palms are sweating. I respond by tightening my grip on her hand. Now I can see the top of her old home. Dead plants cover half of the first floor walls it seem generally abandoned, The door torn off it's frame and a large part of the frame itself is missing. We pull up on the side of a small cliff where two grave stones lie, One reading Summer Rose, the other Odell Rose. Yang and Kanika leave to give Ruby some space I however am still holding her hand.

Ruby and I walked up to the graves she hesitates for a moment but only stops when she is standing in front of them. "M-...Mom, Dad I… I came this time." Her voice is faint her head down not looking at them. "I'm... I'm sorry that I didn't come last year… or the year before that. But I just...I just couldn't do it. I could except that you were dead." Tears start to flow and her voice wobbles. "I... I brought my friend with me... Her name is, Weiss. I told you one day I would make more friends. You always teased me about not liking people enough to make many friends...I'll see you next year I love you mom, dad" She turns around and faces me still crying. "Thank you Weiss thank you so much for coming with me, I've said everything I wanted to say."

I knew I was going to do this more than once. I hug her again and she let her tears flow out. "I'm proud of you Ruby now let's go home." We walk back to the car and wait for Yang and Kanika to finish their visit. I think Ruby will be much happier now that she has let her feelings out instead of keeping them hidden.

For now I will be the best friend she will ever have.

End

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><p>Authors note: Again sorry for the wait my editor was out of town, so this edit goes to my friend Cassi. Anyway I hope you enjoyed and are looking foreword to more.<br>~Glynda


	5. Chapter 5

Mother's Wish

Chapter 5

Note: I'm sorry this chapter took so long but I just didn't know how to end it. This chapter is the shortest one I have written and I hope that I don't write anymore this short but anyway I hope you enjoy and as always please review favorite and follow if you like it.  
>~Glynda<p>

* * *

><p>Winter is over and spring is finally here, although she is still holding onto the cold as long as she can. However, today it is warm with hardly a cloud in the sky. Kanika and Albus are taking Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Blake, and some more of their friends to a nearby river to enjoy the day. Ruby chases Yang trying to splash her with water, while Weiss tries to calm the red head. All the while Blake sits against a tree in the shade reading as she always does.<p>

Blake POV

Yang runs up to me and stands there for a moment before talking. "Blake, I think now would be a good time to ask." By this time I have almost forgotten what Yang is talking about. Ever since Yang watched Ruby and Weiss practice that one day she had wanted to join them and become a huntress as well and by some unknown force convinced me to join her.

"Do you really think now is good? He seems to be relaxing" But before I can say anything else Yang grabs me and pulls me to the small shack in front of which Albus and Kanika are sitting.

"Of course now is good. He's in a good mood." Come to think of it Albus is almost always in a good mood. He doesn't anger easily like Weiss or Yang. In fact I have only seen him truly angry once.

_(Flashback to last spring a month before Ruby turned thirteen)_

Yang and I are talking in the store. No one but Albus is actually there to buy anything. He is rummaging around for anything he thinks might be useful. With Ruby's birthday coming up in the next couple months he doesn't have much time left before he beginning Ruby and Weiss' training.

Right at that moment, three guys walk in and up to the counter. "So what do ya got that's cheap?" All three of them are faunus and the one in the front who seems to be the leader has horns curling around the sides of his head that come to a point just under his ear. The way he speaks makes it seem as if he thinks Yang will just drop the price, just for him.

Yang walks to the counter where they are waiting. "The price depends on how much we have. Also, it would help to tell me what you are looking for." It seems that his attitude has already pissed Yang off.

The leader lays his arm on the counter and sports a slightly angry look. "Look girl, just tell me what you have. What I'm looking for is none of your business."

"Blake can you go inside and wait for me." Yang's voice has an annoyed tone to it and I know she is holding back her anger at the young faunus' attitude. I do as she asks and open the door that connects the shop to Yang's home. I do, however, leave the door cracked so I can watch.

"If you want to buy anything from me you will need to tell me what it is that you want. Now if you can't do that you'll have to leave." Yang points to the door.

The man looks to his left. "I know what it is, I know why you wont sell us anything." He wears this smug smile like he has just won something and is trying to rub it in.

"I never said I wou..."

"It's cuz were faunus isn't it!" He yells.

A loud crash comes from the other end of the store but neither Yang nor the man notice it."You don't like faunus, that's it, you're a racist little..." The room grows darker, not in the sense of the mood, but the room itself got darker just before a white mist fills the room. A hand grabs the man and turns him around. It is Albus. It is a warm day so he is wearing a short sleeve shirt and I can see the scales on the back of his hand and on his elbows.

"I think it would be best if you left now before I have to hurt you." Albus says angrily, his pupils horizontal slits. The man he is holding tries to punch at him, however before he can, Albus shoves his pointer and middle fingers behind the man's collar bone. His neck looks as if it is actually turning to stone and he falls down, yelping in pain.

The one to his left turns to tackle Albus but ends up unconscious after a swift and accurate chop to the neck. "Now get out of here! Please!" Albus lets the first man go; he and the remaining young men drag their knocked out friend outside.

Looking back on that day now, it was scary to see the man who didn't always have a smile per se, but was never angry sightly irritable but never actually angry react that way.

"Wait, now you two want to be huntresses too?" Is the first thing I hear as the memory fades, which serves to bring me fully back to reality. I need to stop getting lost in thought, I missed the whole thing.

"Yes I know it's a bit late seeing as you already started training my sister and Weiss, but I want to help to. I don't know about Blake but I have been taking boxing lessons for two years now so I can make up for the lost time and and I..." Yang sounds like Ruby when she is really nervous; it is always funny to see how those two affect each other.

"Yang calm down, it's fine We've only been training for a few months now, I'm sure you two can catch up." It almost seems like he was already expecting this. "Anyway come by tomorrow and we can get started."

"But Albus, won't having two more students make it harder to train us?" I ask then immediately scold myself in my head for asking a stupid question.

"Nope, actually this way is better now go on and enjoy your day." Before I can even say thanks Yang drags me back to were Ruby and Weiss are sitting next to Jaune and Pyrrha. I hope this goes well but if Yang wants to be a huntresses I will follow her, I will follow her anywhere.

Narrator

Meanwhile Albus and Kanika return to their conversation.

Kanika sits up from having been lying on the ground. "You know Albus, ever since you started training those two you've been a lot happier. Care to tell why?"

While she has known Albus her whole life he isn't some one she would describe as a happy person. Not to say that he is always sad, simply that it is hard for anyone to tell how he truly feels about most things. "Also, I seem to remember you saying something about hating little kids, am I'm right."

Albus just chuckles at her remark. "I remember saying that I hate most children but these girls are different from most at their age and now that they have grown up some, they're closer to being adults than some people ever get. As for being happier, I don't know, I guess Ruby does that to people." Albus sits up as well and takes a drink.

Kanika looks to where Ruby and her friends are. "They do seem happy don't they. Oh yes, I was meaning to ask you something." she looks to Albus. "You've been going out on more missions recently... have more people retired or.." Albus raises his hand.

"No, actually, a couple of hunters came back. They're coming back Kanika, slowly, but one day it may be like it was before the war." He looks up to the sky, sighing then looks back at Kanika. "Well for now it just means that I can live a bit more comfortably." He lays back down on his back using his arms for a pillow.


	6. Chapter 6

Mother's wish

Chapter 6

Number one

After Yang and Blake join the other two in training, things start to look up. It is once again winter , but Ruby no longer tries to lock herself away in her room on the anniversary of her parents' deaths and the four of them continue to grow closer everyday. Albus had called them the night before, instructing them all to go to his house after breakfast, as he had something very important to tell them. Late in the night, Ruby tosses and turns in her bed, knocking off her blankets, her pillow is soaked in tears and her bed in sweat...

"No Not again" She mumbles, "Stay away!"

In Ruby's dream Ruby POV

_Why am I here? This place is different from the other nightmares. "Hello?" I can't see more than three feet in front of me and past that is a swirling wall of icy wind. I can hear whispers but nothing is clear or makes any sense._

"_Dear, come this way." says a voice from behind the wall but that can't be...mother's voice._

"_MOM, mom where are you?" I try to walk through the wall but get thrown back by the wind._

" _You're almost there, sweetheart." a second voice chimes in, this time it is dad's. "Just keep trying," the voice is getting louder. "Come to us, Ruby." This time there is more than one voice, more than two, but all the same as if only one. Shadows start showing on the other side of the wall and the wind gets stronger the more the voices talk._

" _Mom...dad is this really you?" I can't help asking. The shadows walk closer._

"_Come over here dear and we can be together again." A hand comes through the wind, it's rotten and bloody. I almost puke as it tries to grab me._

"_NO! Get away! You're not my parents!" I curl up in a ball just out of the hand's range. "Someone help...anyone." _

_" __Ruby, Ruby!" Who is that? That voice isn't like the others. "Ruby open your eyes please!" I look up and see the wind is gone and I'm in front of my old house. "Wake up please!" My eyes shoot open. _

Narrator

...Ruby sits up quickly and covers her face with her hands to catch her tears. "Weiss?"

Ruby feels arms circle around her in one of Weiss's rare hugs. This makes the third time that Weiss and not Yang had woken her from a nightmare to comfort her. "I'm here Ruby it's OK now." Ruby returns the hug without thinking. " You're OK Ruby, it's not real."

"Weiss..Can I sleep in your bed...with you tonight?" Ruby is still crying into Weiss's shoulder.

Weiss looks down to Ruby and smiles, still sitting on the bed which in Ruby's sleep she had pushed off everything but the pillow she had been holding onto. "Of course Ruby, just like before."

The next morning Weiss wakes up to find Ruby holding onto her as if her life depends on Weiss staying were she is, and despite her attempts to escape Weiss knows she is going to be stuck in her bed until either Ruby wakes up or decides to let go. Weiss knows that neither of those will occur any time soon and decides to go back to sleep.

Several hours have passed and Yang bursts through the door to Ruby and Weiss's room. "Hey guys come on , we gotta go talk to Albus so co..." Yang looks at Weiss's bed to see her and Ruby holding each other.

"Hmmp I guess they can sleep until Blake gets here." She turns and walks out of the room.

Shortly after Yang's retreat, Ruby wakes up and sees that not only is she clinging to Weiss but that Weiss is doing the same, quickly taking in her surroundings, she notes that they are both in Weiss's bed. Ruby jumps out of the bed without thinking, waking up Weiss. "Good morning Ruby...what's the matter did you have another nightmare?" Weiss sits up and moves to the side of the bed, putting her feet over the edge.

"No, no, I'm fine... I just..it's nothing lets go get some food." Ruby turns and makes her way to the door quickly for more than one reason, one to hide her embarrassment and the other being that she was hungry.

Shortly after eating Blake shows up and the four of them make their way to Albus's home. He had called Kanika the night before tell her to send the girls over in the morning about something important. Now the five of them are sitting in his living room, Albus with his back to the fireplace.

"Ok girls I have some good news for you all". He slides a scroll to them.

"This is a commission that I received the other day. As you know I can't take any missions in the winter." he turns to the fireplace and jabs in with the fire poker. "I am going to give you your first mission, but since I can't be there to watch out for you I have a friend from my old team coming to help."

Ruby jumps over the table and hugs Albus. "Thank you so much Albus I didn't think we would be going on our first mission for years!" She gets up and walks back, barely able to contain her excitement and sits next to Weiss.

"May I ask what made you decide we were ready to take mission meant for a trained Hunter?" Weiss turns to him with her arms crossed.

Albus turns and stokes the fire again. "Well, to be honest you four are flying through these classes, I'm teaching you the same stuff I was taught and you are over a year ahead of where you should be, so I wanted to see how you would deal with being in some real danger." The fire cracks and lights the room before dying back down. "But as I said you wont be out there alone, His name is Bayard Arashi. He wont get in the way of your mission, however he will make sure none of you die." He stands up and takes the scroll back.

" So...what will we be doing on this mission?" Yang speaks up after being surprisingly quiet the whole time.

"Just killing some Grimm that have been making too much trouble for travelers, some Ursa , Beowolves and a deathstalker to be exact. With the four of you it should be fine." He folds the scroll and walks to the other side of the room. "Now, Bayard should be here some time tomorrow so enjoy your day and get some sleep tonight." He leaves the room and the four girls go back to Ruby's

"So Albus told me you four are going on a mission, and Bayard is coming along." Kanika sits down next to them on the couch in the common room which is dimly lit only by the television screen. They had spent the whole day training and making sure they had everything down perfectly and it is now almost midnight.

Blake gets up and walks to the door. "Well it's late and I should head home now."

"Blake you are welcome to spend the night, you know that." says Kanika, who is still seated at the couch next to Ruby and Yang.

"Ya! Just like when we were young, we can even share the same bed like we always did." Yang stands up and walks over to Blake. "Come on Blake, we need to be at Albus' early anyway, just spend the night."

"I don't have any reason not to but I think we have all gotten to large to fit in the same bed." She walks back onto the main room and sits back down.

"Ruby and Weiss have their own room, you can just sleep in my bed with me." Yang grabs Blake's arm and pulls her up the stairs.

Blake doesn't have any time to protest before she is at the top of the stairs and being pulled in the direction of Yang's room.

"I think now would be a good time for you all to go to sleep so you can get to your mission in the morning." Kanika stands up from her spot and walks to the kitchen. "Good night you two."

Ruby grabs Weiss who is almost asleep and begins to climb the stairs. "Lets go to sleep now Weiss."

The next morning Ruby is the first up. She leaves Weiss asleep and goes to wake Blake and Yang. She bursts through the door and throws off their blankets. " Get up you two we need to get our mission!"

After everybody is awake, they make the walk to Albus' home again.

Ruby knocks on the door. "Albus, you up yet?" Yang shouts into the door. the girls hear a tired groan just before the door opens.

"(Yawn) Good you are all here. Come in." Albus turns around and sits on the couch.

The white-haired trainer opens his scroll and pulls up the mission log."OK, so I'll go over the mission details before Bayard gets here. You will take an airship four hours north, from there you must track the Grimm. There are around ten Ursa, a few Beowolves, and one noted deathstalker. You are to kill them them report back to the drop off where the airship will be waiting for you." He passes the scroll to Ruby and the four girls read it over, as they finish and are passing it back to Albus a knock sounds on the door. Albus stands up as the door opens, letting in a wave of icy wind that almost puts the fire out.

"Close the damn door Bayard, it's cold!" The door closes and a man walks into the living room.

"Sorry about that, that wind is stronger than you'd think. It's been a while hasn't it Albus." The man with short black hair and rust colored eyes says warmly to his old friend. The girls take him in, noting that he wears black kimono pants with red trim a loose fitting and long sleeved shirt also with red trim but with lines coming from under his brown leather chest plate that go around his sleeves. His chest plate only covers his upper chest(heart and lungs). Over this he wears a kimono jacket that matches his pants. The only other armor he wears are guards on his arms that go from his shoulders to just below the elbows.

"I see that you're all geared up, even after ten years of retirement." Albus gives him a friendly hug.

"So these are the girls you were talking about?" Bayard asks as he moves back to survey the young trainees.

"Yes, now you did read through the mission details right?" Albus sits back down on the couch.

I read most of it but it's not my mission right? I'm just here to watch them do theirs and make sure they don't die right." Bayard sits down next to Albus and leans back.

"Right. Good then, you can all get going, the airship should be waiting to take you to the mission area." With that Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Bayard leave Albus and start walking to the air ship docks.

Yang runs ahead and jumps onto the dock when it comes into sight. "This is gonna be awesome! Come on, lets get on that thing!"

Weiss walks onto the ship last, just after Ruby, who seems as overly excited today as she had been the day before. She was practically skipping on the deck of the ship. "Calm down it's still four hours away and there isn't much we can do on this ship." Weiss notes as she sits down next to Ruby.

The ship starts to move and the first half of their trip begins, within half an hour Yang Ruby and Bayard are all asleep. Weiss and Blake both have their partners resting against them and can't move in fear of waking them. This is how most of the trip goes, with Blake reading and Weiss looking slightly annoyed at Ruby who has fallen in her lap. Annoyed or not however, Weiss does not wish to wake Ruby and so she sits as still as possible. Blake lets herself get a short nap in after Yang falls asleep. The trip goes rather smoothly with no disruptions until they hit a bit of turbulence which succeeds in waking Ruby.

"Weiss? What's going on?" Ruby says in a sleepy voice as she slowly sits up.

" Well you and everyone else fell asleep shortly after we took off, and now we are almost to our destination." She looks down to the floor.

"What's wrong Weiss, is something bothering you?" Ruby now a bit more aware grabs Weiss's hand.

"It's nothing just a bit nervous about the mission." Weiss grabs Ruby's hand in response.

"Don't worry Weiss, we will do fine. Now let's wake up Yang, Blake, and Bayard so we can get this mission going."

As the ship lands and the team debarks to find the inn at which they would be staying, the weather picks up from a light snow to a blizzard. By the time they find the inn they're covered in snow and shivering, except for Weiss, who never seems to be bothered by the cold.

"That was far to much trouble" Weiss knocks the snow off her shoes as Bayard gets the room keys.

Bayard gives Ruby and Weiss a key along with Blake and Yang. "You each have a room for two, since the weather made a turn for the worst we can't go out until it calms down, so relax and be ready for the mission."

After getting their keys, they went to their rooms, Ruby with Weiss and Blake with Yang. Ruby pretty much drags a bored Weiss to their room.

Ruby falls onto her bed and simply lies there. "Ruby you can't still be tired it is only two." Weiss sits next to Ruby and stares down at her.

"It's not like there is much else we can do so good night." Ruby pulls the blanket over her head and seems to be asleep in moments.

"Fine I guess it does make sense." Weiss stands up to walk to her bed but is stopped by Ruby's hand grabbing hers. "...Fine, you win Ruby." she lies down next to her friend. "Good night, Ruby."

End

NOTE: Once again I'm sorry for the long time since the last update and the ending might seem a bit stretched out but I have been moving the last couple of weeks and haven't had much time to write nor did I have the internet to publish the new chapter for a while after the move. Once things calm down it should be easier for me to write. However until I can start getting these out quickly you should go check out A-Rav, Elfenlied1012 and RWBYFan4life, they all have great stories and I want to thank them, their writing always helps when I have writers block so for you fans of this story you can thank them for helping me get through some rough patches.  
>~Glynda<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

Mother's Wish

Chapter 7

Morning comes and while everyone else is wide awake Ruby and Weiss have yet to wake up or at least are too lazy to get out of bed. The others wait not wanting to wake or rush them. Finally, Bayard leaves to get food, leaving Blake and Yang in the lobby.

Yang sits back in her chair and smiles. "Do you think there is something between those two, Blake?" She laughs as she says it knowing just what Ruby thinks of her dear Weiss.

Blake just looks at Yang for a moment. " I think it would take a miracle for either of them to tell the other how they feel." With that Blake stands, "I'm going to go wake them up now so we can get started." Blake turns and walks up the stairs the the room Ruby and Weiss were given the night before.

Up in their room, Ruby finds herself holding onto Weiss again as she was the morning before and blushes. "Again... if she wakes up while I'm doing this she'll question why and... and I can't lie about something like this to her." Ruby gets up and quickly gets dressed. As she does, someone knocks on the door. "Um, just a moment, I'm getting dressed."

A slightly muffled voice come through the door "It's Blake. I just came to see if you were awake." Ruby hears Blake walk away and decides to wake up Weiss.

As Ruby and a newly awakened Weiss go down to the inn lobby, Bayard walks back in holding two large bags. "Ahh good, everyone's up! Now we can eat and then get started." He places the bags on the table, pulling out bread along with other breakfast foods. As the five of them eat they notice that Weiss is having a hard time.

Ruby moves close to Weiss. " Weiss are you still worried about the mission?" The look on Ruby's face is concerned but hopeful.

Weiss looks at her and after a moment smiles. "Somewhat but I think that it will go quite smoothly, as long as we do everything correctly."

When they finish eating they leave the inn to find that the storm from last night is all but gone and only a small amount of rain is still falling. As they make their way out of town, the trees become thicker until they are completely in the forest, the town completely out of sight. "Ok, so you know the mission. Find them, kill them, then go back to the inn when you're done."

The further the four go, the thicker the trees become along with the large amount of dead leaves that litter the forest floor. "So how are we going to find them anyway?" Yang is the first to speak, with a slightly annoyed tone. "They only told us to come here and kill some grimm, and they gave us a whole forest to search through." They continue walking in hope of finding their targets.  
>_<p>

Albus' home.

Albus lies in bed trying to sleep away the winter like he always does. It is around this time that he thinks back on what happened after graduating from Beacon and soon after the war starting. He thinks back to humanity's full force attack on the grimm that killed almost all of them. In fact, there were few grimm left after the war that most hunters were forced to find other work. Only around 300 hunters remain active throughout the whole planet of Remnant... however it could have easily gone the other way and what would they have done, if they had lost the war? Would the remaining hunters be treated like outcasts as if they caused it or would they be treated like fallen heroes?

He sighs, "Well, no use thinking about it now." As he lies there, still wearing his boots to keep his feet warm, he hears a crash on the outside of his wall. He runs outside to see Kanika leaning on his wall.

Kanika points to her right. "U... ursa, I didn't have my gear and... I thought I could still take it... but," Albus sits her down.

"Just sit here and let your aura do what it will". He turned to the ursa; it was large with heavy bone armor and spikes jutting out from its back and elbows, the armor on its skull is chipped on the sides.

Albus doesn't have his gear and it's bitter cold, but he doesn't care, his blood is boiling. Albus is hard to truly anger but hurting some one he cares for is one of the ways to do it.

Albus charges the ursa with no weapon. He jumps over and onto it as it swings then grabs it's shoulder and petrifies its upper arm. After all of this, he jumps off. As the ursa swings its arm trying to free it from the stone, Albus jumps onto its head causing it to lose balance and fall on its back. It falls and Albus jumps above it landing his heel on the armor plate covering its head. He flips over and brings one more kick onto the same spot shattering the head piece. The ursa tries to stand but is kept down by the spikes on its back. Albus walk to the head, grabs the forehead and petrifies it.

Albus runs back to Kanika who is still sitting on the ground, she has a soft black aura around her and the cuts on her arms are slowly fading away. " Kanika? Are you going to be ok?" He offers her a hand. She takes it and stands before almost falling back down.

"I think I'll be fine but I can't stand, it got my leg pretty badly." Her right pant leg is torn off under the knee and a few large cuts still remain. "Could I stay with you for a while until I feel a bit better?"

Albus helps her walk into his house and sits her down on the couch. He sits down next to her and looks at her leg. "Aura can only heal so much in a short time... you may be unable to walk for a few days but you should be fine afterward."

Kanika smiles "Well I guess I owe you now, don't I?" She sits back. "Didn't something like this happen before Albus?"

Albus moves her so she is laying down on the couch and then sits across from her. "Yes I think it did, you got pissed, ran in and came back all torn up."

As the two of them go on about their past Albus, who for as long as he can remember has had a thing for Kanika, forces himself to stay quite about it; a time like this might seem right, but if he's going to act on this he needs to be sure. The two of them have known each other since childhood and if it doesn't go well, it could ruin everything.

Ruby and team

While Albus fights the ursa, Ruby and the others finally find their targets -minus a few beowolves and the deathstalker.

"Hey, Ruby, you ok?" Yang runs over to Ruby after they finish, her weapons folding in as she hugs her. "You were awesome, sis."

"That's all good, but we aren't done yet, we missed four beowolves and there's no trace of the deathstalker." Weiss sits down by a large tree and the others follow her.

They sit in silence, none of them talking and hardly moving. The fight took a lot out of them and they need a short break before looking for their final targets.

Heavy foot falls sound just before a surprise attack. "MOVE!" Blake shouts as she jumps up and draws her weapon, blocking one strike but another hitting her upper left arm, leaving a deep cut down to the bone.

Yang runs and catches Blake as she falls to her knees holding her arm. "Blake! Blake are you ok?"

Ruby and Weiss cover them as Yang picks up Blake. "You get Blake back to town and get Bayard, he might be able to help." Ruby shouts as she blocks an attack.

Yang starts to run then turns back to Ruby and Weiss. "You two better be safe when I get back!" She turns and keeps running.

As Ruby and Weiss fight off the wolves they get pushed farther and farther from where they were, until they're at a small open clearing. Here they quickly finish the wolves in time to dodge the stinger of a deathstalker.

"Weiss, are you ok?" Between her and Weiss sits the deathstalker, trying to decide who to attack first.

"I'm fine, now concentrate we need a plan." She ducks under a swing, "Any ideas Ruby?" Quickly, she flips backwards away from another swing.

Ruby fires her gun, launching herself at the deathstalker and taking off one of its legs. As she lands, she slips when the snow gives way revealing ice underneath. "Weiss! Make it break the ice around it, we can sink it!"

Weiss dashes to Ruby while the enemy is turning. "What do you mean? How will that work."

"Look." She pushes the snow away to show more ice, "We are on a frozen lake,if we can break the ice around it then the ice won't be able to hold its weight and will sink."

"Hmmm. That might work, but it will be very dangerous, lets move." Weiss gets in front of the deathstalker. It slams its claws at her and the first strike cracks the ice while the seconds breaks out a large chunk. This keeps up until there is only a small section of ice still holding on. "This turned out a lot better than I thought it would."

"I didn't think it would go this well either." Ruby says as she readies her scythe.

"What?!"

"Nothing" Ruby says quickly as she moves onto the last bit of ice. Just as the stinger comes down she leaps away, the ice breaks and the force of it hitting the side of the now free floating ice block makes it flip, sending the deathstalker into the water.

"Yay, it worked!" Ruby tackle hugs Weiss before picking her up and spinning her around.

"Ok, ok, Ruby that's enough. Get off! Let;s go meet back up with Yang she should be back soon." Weiss turns to where they came from in the wood and Ruby runs ahead.

"Come on, Weiss" Ruby turns quickly on her heel to face Weiss who is around twenty feet away now.

"I'm coming but I'm not going to run like you. Whoaaa!" The claw of the deathstalker rips up the ice behind Weiss and drags the piece down as it falls again. "RUBY!" is all Weiss gets out before she falls into the water. Ruby watches in horror as Weiss goes underwater, banging her head into the sharp ice before disappearing below.

"Weiss!" Ruby undoes the clamps holding her cloak on and lets it fall, 'it will only slow me down under water,' she thinks to herself as she runs, firing her rifle and launching herself into the air. She throws herself back down and into the water after Weiss, 'I can't believe I let this happen, Weiss can hardy swim if I don't get to her she'll...' She mentally slaps herself. 'I can't think like that,' she can see Weiss now and the very faint glow of the deathstalker's tail. She grabs Weiss around the waist, opens her mouth and shares what air she can before beginning their ascent upward. As they near the surface, Ruby starts to run out of air. They start to fall slowly back down when Weiss grips her rapier tightly. A glyph forms under them and launches them out of the water and onto the ice.

Ruby scrambles over to Weiss and starts pushing on her chest, desperate to get the water out of her lungs. "Weiss! Weiss you can't leave I need you... I promised I wouldn't let this happen, not again." Ruby noticed Weiss had a gash on her left eye, likely from when her head hit the ice. It looked bad enough to leave a scar.

Weiss coughs and spits up water before sitting up. "Ruby? What? How did we?" she coughs again then shivers. "It's freezing out here."

Ruby grabs her cloak and picks Weiss up. "Ruby what are you doing!?" she folds her arms in trying to stop from shivering.

"Look, another blizzard is coming in, we don't have time to get back to town so we need to find somewhere to stay until it calms down." After some searching she finds a small cave on the side of the frozen lake.

With some logs Ruby cut down they manage to get a fire going by lighting it with Weiss' fire dust. With their clothes drying above the fire, Ruby and Weiss are wrapped in the only thing that is dry, Ruby's' cloak. "Hey Weiss."

Weiss turns away from Ruby with her face slightly red. "Yes Ruby."

"Do you think we'll make it out of here?"

"Of course we will, I'm sure this will blow over soon enough."

Ruby turns back to the fire. "I hope so."

Back in town

"YOU CAN'T EXPECT ME TO STAY HERE WHEN MY SISTER IS OUT IN THE STORM!" Yang yells at Bayard, who is blocking the door from her and Blake's room.

"I know how you feel but if you go out there right now we might lose you too. He sighs then continues, if not for that", stay here for Blake. She's going to need you when she wakes up." Yang stops for a moment then calms down and sits next to Blake's bed.

"Fine, but if anything happens to them I'm blaming you."

Bayard turns to the door. "I'll go out and look first thing once the storm clears." He leaves the room.

Yang turns to Blake and grabs her hand. "I'm right here Blake." She spends the whole night like this until morning when Blake wakes up.

End

Note: Ok so I wanted to get this out before the release of volume two but that just didn't happen. Now as I have mentioned I have a new story that will come out at the same time as this chapter and I truly hope that you will enjoy it.  
>~Glynda<p> 


	8. Chapter 8

Mothers Wish

Chapter 8

"I hope they find us soon, but this storm must be keeping them in." Ruby says, still sitting next to Weiss. Both of them are under her cloak, waiting for their clothes to dry. The only light in the cave comes from the fire by which they sit; it casts strange shadows on the walls.

"I'm sure they're fine, however I am a bit worried about Blakes' arm."

They sit in silence then Weiss stands up suddenly. Quickly she remembers that the only thing covering her is Rubys' cloak and sits back down twice as fast. "I... I was going to check our clothes." Weiss turns with her face red.

"Oh, then lets stand at the same time so we stay covered." Ruby turns to Weiss with a smile. As they stand up and Weiss checks the clothes, Ruby stops and stares at the entrance to the cave. "W...Weiss."

She grabs her clothes and turns to Ruby. As she does she passes Ruby her clothes. "What is it? Are we out of fire wood?"

"Weiss...the entrance is covered with snow." Ruby continues to point at the cave entrance.

Weiss' eyes move to the entrance, what was once a large hole is now a wall of snow. Weiss drops her clothes in shock. 'This cant be, how will we be found now.' she thinks to herself. She picks her clothes up and turns to Ruby. " Ruby...I don't have enough fire dust to melt all of that. Only enough to keep the fire going."

Ruby sits down and Weiss quickly covers herself with her clothes. "I'm sure they'll find us Ruby, they just need to search for our scroll on the tracker." Weiss says from behind Ruby while she puts her now dry clothes back on.

"Weiss, what if they don't find us in time?" Ruby has her clothes lying in front of her untouched from when Weiss handed them to her.

"Put your clothes on Ruby, and don't think like that, if you thought like that earlier I would be dead right now." She stands in front of Ruby with one hand on her hip and the other on Rubys' head. "We are going to be fine Ruby now get dressed."

Ruby puts her clothes on and sits back to back with Weiss, putting more wood on the fire they sit in silence for a moment.

Weiss stands again and looks at Ruby, then to the cave entrance, it was only then that she looked at the cave itself and the distorted shadows that the fire cast of them on the smooth walls, walls worn by water but with large gashes as if something had thrashed around and broken parts off.

"Ok!" Ruby propels herself to an upright position and walks to the pile of wood she had collected before entering the cave. "We have plenty of wood so that's not a problem but..."

"... food is" Weiss says, still standing by the fire. She pulls a single green apple from the pouch on her back. "This is all we have, unless we get out of here in the next day or so we'll be living on nothing."

Weiss swirls her toe in the sand on the cave floor, her gaze boring a hole into the ground. Finally, she speaks up. "Ruby."

"Yeah, Weiss?"

"Just in case something does happen and we don't make it out of this cave, there's something I want to get off my chest." She turns around to Ruby and Ruby does the same.

"What is it?"

"We've been friends for years now, in fact almost since the moment we met, but lately I've been thinking of a bit more than just friendship with you." She turns her head, her cheeks slightly red.

Ruby looks at Weiss with a shocked expression before jumping at Weiss and hugging her, laughing and smiling the whole time. "Really? Really? Are you sure, I'm not dreaming, right? Please tell me this is more than just a dream." She hugs Weiss as tightly as she can and lets out a sigh of relief. " I was so scared that you might wake up before me and see me holding onto you or find out from Yang, I was scared that you liked Jaune or someone else so I never brought it up."

Weiss looks incredulously at Ruby, "You thought I had a thing for that idiot?"

"I never saw any signs that... that you liked me." Ruby looks down at the stone floor of the cave.

"Not true! You were just blind and didn't notice it."

"Huh?"

"When have you seen me hug anyone else? Why do you think I worry so much and scold you when you forget something?"

Ruby couldn't believe her ears, she stood staring at the other girl, her mouth wide and incredulous as a small smile worked it's way over her face.

At the Inn.

Blake wakes up some time in the night to find that Yang has fallen asleep on the side of her bed. "Wait...what happened?" her memories start to come back and she suddenly feels the pain in her right arm, The gash is covered but the bandage is colored red and brown with dried blood. "Yang?" she shakes her. "Yang!" Blake shakes her a bit harder this time and the blonde wakes up.

"Huh? Blake?" Yangs stands and then gives Blake the tightest hug she could safely give to an injured person before kissing her on the cheek. "You're ok, you're ok!" She continues this for a few minutes until Bayard enters the room.

"Hey look who's back, it's good to see you awake." He sits down across from the bed and pulls out his scroll. "I may have found where Ruby and Weiss are, but if they dropped their scrolls then I can't do much. Since the storm has let up a bit I'm going to go out and look, you stay here and take care of Blake." With that he stands and leaves the room.

"I hope he can find them."

"He'd better! Or no one will be finding him."

Back in town with Albus and Kanika.

Kanika sat on the couch, refusing to sleep.

"You know you would heal faster if you went to sleep." Albus notes from the other couch by the fire place. He looks back to make sure he isn't just taking to himself.

"Yeah, yeah, I know but I want to talk more. It's been a while since we just talked, you know without four or more teens running around." Kanika, in an attempt to sit up, moves her leg and quickly changes her mind about moving anymore for the night.

"Eh, I like those girls, but it is nice to have some time to ourselves isn't it."

"Hey Albus, you know what coming up soon?" She sits up as much as she can and turns to face him more.

"Cant say that I do."

"...The 18th anniversary of our graduation" She lays back down on the couch. Once again Kanika reminds him of the date of their graduation, it wasn't as flashy as one might think, but not something one could just forget. "Do you remember that day?"

Albus chuckled, "I think you burst into my team's room at 5:30 A.M to wake us up for the ceremony at 5:00 P.M"

Kanika nervously laughs before closing her eyes and thinking back to the last day at Beacon.

Flash back.

_Kanika is up first as usual, it is always the same, even if she doesn't really want to be. This is the day of their graduation and there are many things to do before the ceremony so she takes it upon herself to be the one to wake not only her teammates up_ _but Albus' team too._ _While her team grudgingly woke with much protest, she heads over to Albus' teams room._

(Note: After some events with some people how I no longer talk to the Team that Albus is on has changed from CBAT to AMBR. Albus, Midori, Bayard and Raven)

_She unlocks the door and burst into the room. "Goooood morning team AMBR! It's time to wake upff." Her sentence is cut off by a pillow through from Albus._

"_Go back to sleep Kanika!" Albus groans from under around six blankets. The rest of the team never woke up easily and even now don't seem to be affected by the events._

_She walks over to Albus and sits on his bed. Normally she would pull the blankets off but seeing as it's winter and knowing just how much Albus hates the cold she leaves them on and goes to wake the rest of the team._

_As the day goes on the two teams and the rest of the fourth years are getting ready for graduation later. Before the ending ceremony however, everyone is excited about the duel. Every year on graduation day, the leader of each team has a duel with another leader, one last sparring match before they become licensed hunters. Often two teams that show a lot of rivalry would be picked but this year the pick was to be random. Usually the fights are a bit over the top seeing as they are between the leaders of the teams and they are as strong as some of the teachers by this point. Plus, the leaders love to show off, doing more dramatic tricks trying to out-do the other._

_Albus finally gets his turn, and the match ends with him pinning his opponent to the wall with his shield. Truly, the other leader had no chance. As every year, after the fights one team at a time would be called up to receive their licenses._

_After the ceremony most students got ready to leave, since they only had about a week left until the school closed for 'summer"'vacation, however some students planned on leaving that day or soon after. Albus would be leaving the next day and Kanika followed. She is excited to see her sister who had graduated the year before and had been staying at home with their parents. _

_About two months after returning home Kanika finds that she is pregnant and seeing as Jinhai (leader of her team and Yang's father) is_ _the only person she'd been with, she calls him to tell him the news, "Jin...I have some news..."_

"_What is something happening?"_

"_Well you could say that...I um... I'm pregnant."_

_The call drops and after several times of trying to reach him she realizes that she is more serious about the relationship then he._

_End flashback _

'Wow, why am I thinking of that now?' She thinks to herself then sighs and turns to Albus again. He is still sitting by the fire, blocking most of the light that it would give off. Because of this, the room dark is in the center with strange shadows on the walls. "Hey Albus."

He didn't move more than simply turning his head slightly. "Need something?"

'Should I really ask him about Jin? I'm not sure it's the best idea, those two hated each other.' She closes her eyes and sinks back into the couch acting like she didn't hear him and trying like mad to think of anything else to say to him.

She opens her eye to look over at Albus only to find him standing over her. "Come on what is it?"

Kanika laughs nervously and looks away "I... I don't know what you mean."

He flicks her forehead. "I hate to say this since it makes me feel kinda old but we have known each other for over thirty years Kanika, you know you can't hide stuff from me." he sits down next to her. "So tell me what's on your mind."

"Fine, fine...it's Jin. I was thinking back on graduation and he came up for some reason." She sinks into the couch more expecting Albus to be angry for bringing him up, but instead of anger all she feels is a hug. "Albus?"

"That was a long time ago, we're all past it now you don't need to worry about him." He doesn't move, "but one thing he did made everything worth it."

"Yang." Kanika whispers to herself and hugs him back.

"So don't say that it was all a waste of time like I did, I just didn't like him, even if you did."

"Thanks, Albus"

He stands walks over to the other couch and lies down. "Now get some sleep, if you need anything I'll be right here." After a few minutes he falls asleep.

Kanika smiles and closes her eyes, whispering so that it was barely audible even to her own ears. "God I was blind for so long, but I can see it now. Albus, I think it's time I give you an answer."

In the Forest

The storm has calmed down and Bayard has been out looking for over and hour with nothing to show for it, until he comes across a frozen lake that has its ice broken into several large floating pieces. A beep sounds from his scroll just before he walks onto the ice. "Whats this?" he opens his scroll to see that his tracker on Ruby's scroll has been picked up. "Finally I'm getting somewhere." He turns to follow the tracker, it takes him to the other end of the lake with a large snow bank and a few trees poking out from under it. The beeping gets louder as he nears the mound. "Well... I better get digging." He draws his sword and begins hacking at the snow.

In the cave.

Ruby and Weiss sit near the fire still wrapped in Ruby's cloak. The fire is dying and the only wood left is a small pile. "Ruby... I do..." Ruby puts her hand over Weiss' mouth, muffling the rest of her words, "Ruby what are you doing.?"

"Listen" Just under the soft crackling of the fire a faint crunching can be heard. "They found us!" Ruby hugs Weiss tightly. "We're gonna live, Weiss!"

The sound gets louder until the wall of snow gives way to a large black sword held by Bayard. "Thank the gods I found you two. You killed 'em good so your missions over, lets get you home. 

~End

AN: Ok I'm really sorry about the long wait, my classes have started to push into my home time a bit and my editor forgot she had this for about three weeks. Also the next chapter of Broken shields is going to come out soon, unfortunately my friend how writes when cinder falls is swamped with getting ready for collage and would finish writing for quite some time. I'll try and get these out a bit faster but with all the stuff going on it will be hard.


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